Thiruchendur murugan temple – Soorasamharam festival

Soorasamharam or surasamharam festival in Tiruchendur temple begin with yaga sala pooja where lakhs of devotees across Tamil Nadu began their sashti vridham. The history behind this festival is said to be that Lord Senthilandavar killed the Demon Soorpadman with his vel and this divine act of his celebrated as Soorasamharam. On this day the devotees celebrate the victory of lord muruga and the temple authorities had made elaborate arrangements for the dharsan of lord murugan during the festival where the Tiruchendur Subramaniaswamy kills the demon on the sea shore.

According to skanda purana the demons under the guidance of surapadama defeated the devas and they took over the earth. From them they started to harassing the people, so adharma was all around. Lord Brahma, other gods and humans prayed to Lord Shiva to put an end to this Adharma. Lord shiva created lord murugan.

At last subramania swamy killed surapadma with the lance. But the demon turned into a huge mango tree. Then murugan cut the tree into two vertical pieces with his vel. The pieces were then transformed into peacock and cock. Then lord murugan made peacock as his vehicle and cock as his flag. This event is popularly called as Surasamharam.

This day has great importance at all the murugan South India Temples and also in south India, Malaysia, Singapore, south Africa and Sri Lanka. The soorasamharam festival takes place at Tiruchendur, the divine action is re-enacted on the day and it is seen by thousands of people.